Debuting on 5 January 2002 and originally ending on 2 June 2004, the first three seasons featuring 52 episodes in total were broadcast, each consisting of two 11-minute segments. The first two seasons were originally broadcast on ITV at a Saturday night slot. In May 2004, the sitcom left the Saturday night slot and the third season was instead broadcast daily on CITV due to the show's popularity with younger audiences.
In January 2014, a revival of the sitcom was announced, with Rowan Atkinson returning as the voice of Mr. Bean, along with other cast members reprising their roles. The revival premiered on 16 February 2015 and ended on 8 October 2019 on CITV.[4] It contained more actual dialogue than in the previous seasons of this show and also in the original live-action sitcom, which mostly featured little sound effects and mumbling.
In January 2024, another revival was announced, set to release in 2025 on ITVX in the United Kingdom and Cartoonito in Europe.[5][6]
Cast and characters
Main
The show's characters and props. From left to right: Mr. Bean, Teddy, Mrs. Wicket, Scrapper, Miss Wince, Irma Gobb, and Mr. Bean's Mini.
Mr. Bean (voiced by Rowan Atkinson) – The title character. He is a childish, self-absorbed and extremely competitive individual living in London who is almost always dressed in his trademark tweed jacket and a thin red tie, and often brings various abnormal schemes and contrivances to everyday tasks (like his live-action counterpart). Despite this, he is depicted in the animated series as more competent and less buffoonish than his live-action counterpart as well as that he talks more in complete sentences compared to his live-action counterpart, who rarely spoke a few mumbled words that are all in a comically low-pitched voice (especially in the later seasons).
Teddy – Mr. Bean's personal teddy bear and lifelong best friend. Despite being inanimate, Bean pretends that Teddy is alive (like in the original live-action sitcom).
Irma Gobb (voiced by Matilda Ziegler) – Mr. Bean's long-suffering girlfriend, who debuted in Mr. Bean: Live Action Series episode The Curse of Mr. Bean. Like her original live-action counterpart, Irma is depicted as more intelligent and significantly less buffoonish than Bean, which often results in her having an often-strained relationship with the latter. She is also depicted as a worker at a local library.
Mrs. Julia Wicket (voiced by Sally Grace) – Mr. Bean's elderly and grouchy landlady, who often despises Bean and his antics, though deep down, she does have a soft spot for him (which becomes more prominent in the later seasons). Running gags include her screaming loudly during bad situations, often scaring birds outside the flat, and slamming Bean's door causing glass-framed pictures and other objects hung on the wall to fall and break. As revealed in the episode "Young Bean", the reason she hates Bean is that, when he was young, he accidentally ruined her wedding by riding his go-kart down a hill and crashing into her and her groom. In the first season, she often plays an antagonistic role, but acts much nicer beginning in the second season.
Scrapper – Mrs. Wicket's mischievous one-eyed pet cat who, much like his owner, despises Mr. Bean.
Miss Mary Wince – Mrs. Wicket's best friend, who often stops by her flat for tea and watches wrestling with her. She is called Mary in the episode "A Royal Makeover".
Mr. Bean's Mini – Mr. Bean's personal vehicle, a citron-green Mini with a matte black bonnet. As a running gag, Bean keeps it locked with a bolt-latch and padlock rather than the lock fitted to the car (like in the original live-action sitcom). Unlike in the live-action sitcom where the Mini's registration number is "SLW 287R", the registration number in the animated series is "STE 952R".
Reliant Regal – A light-blue and three-wheeled car which, as another running gag, is always getting turned over or crashed out of its parking space or into anywhere by Mr. Bean in his Mini, who is usually oblivious to the results (like in the original live-action sitcom). However, in the episode "Car Wars", Mr. Bean finds himself in a conflict with the car in which he dedicates the episode to purposefully crashing it. Unlike in the live-action sitcom where the Reliant's registration number is "GRA 26K", the registration number in the animated series is "DUW 742".
Supporting
Burglars – A duo of unnamed criminals (one large and the other small) who are masters of disguises and regularly go across London committing various crimes, only to nevertheless suffer defeat at the hands of Mr. Bean (mainly at times when he is their victim or witness), who then has the local police arrest them. The burglars serve as the antagonists, appearing in numerous episodes.
Bruiser family – Mr. Bean and Mrs. Wicket's next-door neighbours, a working class overweight family who sometimes act as Bean's adversaries. While appearing as a whole family in the episodes "Neighbourly Bean", "Scaredy Bean", "Home Movie", "Litterbugs", "Super Spy" and "Dig This", only the father and son appear in most episodes.
Queen Elizabeth II – The queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, of whom Mr. Bean is a fan.
Traffic Warden – An unnamed parking enforcement officer, who previously appeared on the original live-action episode "The Trouble with Mr. Bean". As the name of her job implies, she locates and tickets illegally-parked cars across London. As Mr. Bean habitually parks his Mini in the wrong places, she promptly gets in his way which puts him at odds with her. She is very committed at her duty, even to the point of ticketing a police vehicle once.
Librarian – The boss of the library where Irma works.
Lottie – Irma Gobb's teddy bear who looks identical to Teddy, except she has eyelashes, a red bow and a skirt. She is portrayed as Teddy's girlfriend, but Mr. Bean disapproves of this relationship.
Mrs. Wicket's nephew – The unnamed nephew of Mrs. Wicket.[7] He is usually seen playing video games at his aunt's flat.
Declan – A friend of Irma Gobb, who is also a rival of Mr. Bean when it comes to winning her heart.
Episodes
Reception
The show was met with mostly positive reviews from television critics. Common Sense Media, an education and advocacy group that promotes safe technology and media for children, gave the show 3 stars and wrote that the "UK slapstick cartoon [is] geared toward older kids, adults."[8]
Home media
Mr. Bean: The Animated Series has been released on DVD by A&E Home Video in Region 1, and by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in Regions 2 and 4. In the United States, the first three seasons of the show were released in its entirety on six volumes, while in the United Kingdom and Australia, the six volumes only contained 47 out of all the 52 episodes, with the remaining episodes instead appearing as extra features on DVDs of the original live-action sitcom.
The reason for this was that when the five episodes were classified by the British Board of Film Classification in the United Kingdom, they were each given a PG certificate instead of a U certificate unlike the other episodes. It was then decided that all DVDs of the series should have a U certificate each, resulting in the five PG-rated episodes not being included.
In Region 4, the DVD Mr. Bean: The Animated Series: Season 2, Volume 3 – Racing Adventures was an exclusive product for Big W; nowadays, it is no longer available.[9]
In other media
A third-personplatform video game based on the series was released in the late 2000s on multiple platforms. It was first released in PAL regions as Mr. Bean on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Microsoft Windows. A Wii port of the game, titled Mr. Bean's Wacky World, was also released shortly after those versions in the same regions, with a North American localisation of the port being available in 2011.
Multiple mobile games based on the series have been released such as Mr. Bean: Around the World,[14]Mr. Bean: Flying Teddy, Mr. Bean: Sandwich Stack,Mr. Bean: Special Delivery and more which are available globally on iOS, Android, and Amazon mobile devices.
References
^"Toonhound – Mr Bean: The Animated Series". 19 May 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
^Deans, Jason (6 February 2001). "Mr Bean turned into cartoon". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
^"Mr.Bean To Become A Cartoon". 10 October 2000. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
^Guide, British Comedy (22 January 2014). "Rowan Atkinson working on new animated Mr Bean series". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
^Ramachandran, Naman (4 January 2024). "'Mr. Bean' Animated Series Returns for Fourth Season". Variety. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
^Cusipag, Jhon Dave (13 January 2024). "Mr. Bean: The Animated Series to have season 4 in 2025". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
